Sarah Caroline
Olivia ColmanOlivia Colman (born 30 January 1974)[1] is an English
actress. She has won three BAFTA Awards, three BIFA Awards, one Golden
Globe Award, and has been nominated twice for an Emmy Award.
Colman first came to prominence for her supporting role as Sophie
Chapman in the
Channel 4Channel 4 comedy series Peep Show (2003–2015). Her
other TV comedy roles include
Green WingGreen Wing (2004–2006), Beautiful
People (2008–2009), Rev. (2010–2014) and Twenty Twelve
(2011–2012). She also played various roles in That Mitchell and Webb
Look (2006–2008), alongside her Peep Show co-stars David Mitchell
and Robert Webb. Colman's move to drama saw her receive critical
acclaim for her performance in Paddy Considine's film Tyrannosaur
(2011).[2] Her other film roles include PC Doris Thatcher in Hot Fuzz
(2007),
Carol ThatcherCarol Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011), Queen Elizabeth in
Hyde Park on HudsonHyde Park on Hudson (2012), Bethan Maguire in Locke (2013), Margaret
Lea in The Thirteenth Tale (2013), and the Hotel Manager in The
Lobster (2015). Colman will portray Queen
Elizabeth IIElizabeth II in the third
and fourth season of the original
NetflixNetflix series The Crown.
A three-time BAFTA TV Award winner, she won Best Female Comedy
Performance for
Twenty TwelveTwenty Twelve and Best Supporting Actress for Accused
in 2013,[3] before winning Best Actress in 2014 for her role as DS
Ellie Miller in the ITV crime series Broadchurch. Colman was also
nominated for the International
Emmy AwardEmmy Award for Best Actress for
Broadchurch. For her performance in the AMC/
BBCBBC miniseries The Night
Manager, she won the
Golden Globe AwardGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting
Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and was
nominated for the Primetime
Emmy AwardEmmy Award for Outstanding Supporting
Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

Contents

1 Early life
2 Career

2.1 Television and radio
2.2 Film

3 Personal life
4 Charitable work and activism
5 Filmography

5.1 Film
5.2 Television
5.3 Theatre

6 Awards and nominations
7 References
8 External links

Early life[edit]
Colman was born in north Norfolk, to a nurse mother and a chartered
surveyor father.[4][5] She was educated at two independent schools,
NorwichNorwich High School for Girls in
NorwichNorwich and
Gresham's SchoolGresham's School in Holt.
Her first role was
Jean BrodieJean Brodie in a school production of The Prime of
Miss
Jean BrodieJean Brodie at age 16. She then realised acting was what she
wanted to do.[6]
Colman went on to spend a term studying primary teaching at Homerton
College, Cambridge. During this time, at the age of 20,[7] she
attended the
Bristol Old Vic Theatre SchoolBristol Old Vic Theatre School which she graduated from
in 1999 and also auditioned for the
Cambridge UniversityCambridge University Footlights
Dramatic Club and first met future co-stars David Mitchell and Robert
Webb, as well as Peter Serafinowicz.[8][9][10][11][12]
Career[edit]
Television and radio[edit]
Colman has appeared in roles in numerous BBC, ITV and Channel 4
television programmes, such as Bruiser, People Like Us, Look Around
You, Black Books, The Office, The Time of Your Life and provided the
voice-over for Five's poll for Britain's Funniest Comedy Character.
She regularly features in
BBCBBC Radio 4 comedies, such as Concrete Cow,
Think the Unthinkable,
The House of Milton Jones and Dirk Gently's
Holistic Detective Agency. She is also the voice of Minka, the Polish
secretary in the Radio 4 comedy Hut 33, set in a fictional
codebreaking hut of the real-life
Bletchley ParkBletchley Park during World War
II.[13] Colman appeared as Bev, alongside
Mark BurdisMark Burdis as Kev, in a
series of television adverts for AA car insurance. She provided voices
for the
AndrexAndrex "be kind to your behind" adverts and Glade fragrance
adverts, where her character is a gorilla.
She has worked with the comedians
Mitchell and WebbMitchell and Webb on several
projects. Colman met the duo when they were all students at Cambridge
University.[14] She has appeared with them in numerous TV and radio
series, such as radio's That
Mitchell and WebbMitchell and Webb Sound, and the
television version That
Mitchell and WebbMitchell and Webb Look. She decided to leave
the programme after her agent suggested that she was becoming too
closely associated with their work and needed to widen her horizons: a
decision that was made "with tears".[15] She continued to appear on
Peep Show until 2015.
In October and November 2008, Colman appeared in the
BBCBBC sitcom
Beautiful People, based on the life of Simon Doonan, as Debbie Doonan,
Simon's mother. She also made a guest appearance in Skins, in the
episode "Naomi" as Naomi's mother Gina. In 2010, Colman took a leading
role as Alex Smallbone, the wife of an inner city vicar, in the BBC
sitcom Rev. Also in 2010, she guest starred in "The Eleventh Hour"
episode of Doctor Who, Matt Smith's debut as the Eleventh Doctor. In
2011, Colman appeared in the
BBCBBC drama Exile, written by Danny
Brocklehurst and starring
John SimmJohn Simm and Jim Broadbent. From 2011 to
2012, she played Sally Owen, the love-lorn secretary to Hugh
Bonneville's character Ian Fletcher, in Twenty Twelve, a comedy series
about planning for the 2012
Olympic GamesOlympic Games in London.
In 2013, Colman began playing DS Ellie Miller in ITV's Broadchurch.
The crime drama series is set in the fictional Dorset town of
Broadchurch, and follows the residents of a tight-knit community after
a young boy is killed under suspicious circumstances.[16][17] She was
nominated for an International
Emmy AwardEmmy Award for Best Actress and won a
BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her performance.[18] Also in 2013,
she starred as Margaret Lea, opposite Vanessa Redgrave, in the BBC
television film The Thirteenth Tale.[19] In 2016, Colman received
praise for her performance as Angela Burr in the AMC/
BBCBBC miniseries
The Night Manager, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy
Award and won a Golden Globe Award.[20] That same year, she starred as
Deborah Flowers in the
Channel 4Channel 4 black comedy series Flowers.[21] She
will provide the voice of Strawberry in the upcoming Netflix/BBC
animated miniseries Watership Down.[22] In October 2017, Colman was
cast as
Elizabeth IIElizabeth II in the third and fourth season of the Netflix
historical drama series The Crown.[23]
Film[edit]
Colman's film credits include naturist Joanna Roberts in the 2006
mockumentary film Confetti – a role she described as "the worst
experience of my life",[14] Alice in the 2007 comedy Grow Your Own,
and PC Doris Thatcher in the 2007 action comedy Hot Fuzz. Colman
played a lead role in Paddy Considine's first two films, the short Dog
Altogether (2007), and his feature directorial debut Tyrannosaur
(2011). For her role in the latter, she won the BIFA Award for Best
Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film and the Empire
Award for Best Actress.[24]
Colman played
Carol ThatcherCarol Thatcher in the 2011 Academy Award-winning drama
film The Iron Lady, with
Meryl StreepMeryl Streep and Jim Broadbent, for which she
was awarded the
London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress
of the Year.[25] She then starred in Yorgos Lanthimos' 2015 absurdist
dystopian film
The Lobster with
Rachel WeiszRachel Weisz and Colin Farrell,[26]
for which she was nominated for the
London Film Critics' Circle Award
for Supporting Actress of the Year and won the BIFA Award for Best
Supporting Actress.[27] She has been cast as Queen Anne in Lanthimos'
upcoming film The Favourite, opposite
Emma StoneEmma Stone and Rachel Weisz.[28]
Personal life[edit]
Colman met her future husband, Ed Sinclair, then a third-year law
student who had become disillusioned with law and preferred to write,
in a production of Alan Ayckbourn's Table Manners (from the Norman
Conquests trilogy) at Footlights.[29][30] Colman fell in love with
Sinclair at first sight, adding that she thought, "There's the bloke
I'm going to marry."[31] She has also said, "My husband and I were
very lucky. We met when we had nothing and we loved each other then.
So we were all right. We were 20 and he was also an actor. If you meet
at that age then you are fine. For me, it was thunderbolts straight
away."[7] Crediting Sinclair for helping her get through tough
times,[7] Colman has said that "[Sinclair] was gorgeous, the most
beautiful thing I'd ever seen," suggesting that the feeling was not
instantly mutual. She added, "I stuck with him and made him realise he
could only be happy with me. I still feel like I'm punching above my
weight."[32] Colman and Sinclair married in August 2001[33] and have
three children together.[34]
Since 2013, Colman has been a judge on the panel of the
NorwichNorwich Film
Festival.[35]
Charitable work and activism[edit]
In 2013, Colman presented two awards at the Mind Media Awards,[36]
which celebrate accurate, responsible and sensitive portrayals of
mental health across all areas of the media. Colman believes that "the
media industry has huge influence and with that comes a responsibility
to contest the stigma that sadly still exists, through accurate
representation." Colman has spoken openly to the Big Issue about her
experience of post-natal depression after the birth of her first
child.[6]
Inspired by her research for the film Tyrannosaur, in 2014, Colman
became the patron of the UK charity Tender, which uses theatre and the
arts to educate young people about how to prevent violence and sexual
abuse. Colman says that domestic violence prevention can make a real
difference in the lives of young people.[37] Other charity work
included participating in the Alzheimer's Society's Holkham Hall
Memory Walk in September 2013. Colman's great-grandmother suffered
from dementia and her mother was involved in running a nursing home
for sufferers.[38] Colman has also added her voice to charity
campaigns for Marie Curie Daffodil Day (care for the terminally
ill)[39] and Anthony Nolan (blood cancer), a charity which Colman says
helped a friend of hers.[40]
In August 2014, Colman was one of 200 public figures who were
signatories to a letter to
The GuardianThe Guardian opposing Scottish independence
in the run-up to September 2014's referendum on the issue.[41]
In December 2014, Colman was involved in a radio documentary about the
plight of women in
AfghanistanAfghanistan on behalf of
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International for
the BBC. Several women who told their stories to journalist Lyse
Doucet were unable to appear because their lives might have been at
risk. Colman read their stories as part of the documentary. In
response to the work, Colman warned that the UK must not abandon
Afghan women to the Taliban. She said, "Being a teacher, a doctor, a
politician – these are important jobs but they shouldn't be
dangerous ones. The brave women whose words I've voiced risk so much
to educate, to care and to shape the future of their country. Women
like these are the hope for Afghanistan's future and the UK must not
abandon them to the
TalibanTaliban now."[42]
Filmography[edit]
Film[edit]

Year
Title
Role
Notes

2004
Terkel in Trouble
Terkel's Mother
Voice; English dub

2005
Zemanovaload
TV Producer

One Day
Ian's Mother
Short film

2006
Confetti
Joanna Roberts

2007
Hot Fuzz
PC Doris Thatcher

Grow Your Own
Alice

I Could Never Be Your Woman
Hairdresser

Dog Altogether
Anita
Short film

2009
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee
Olivia

2011
Tyrannosaur
Hannah

Arrietty
Homily
Voice; UK dub

The Iron Lady
Carol Thatcher

2012
Hyde Park on Hudson
Queen Elizabeth

2013
I Give It a Year
Linda

Locke
Bethan Maguire

2014
Cuban Fury
Sam Garrett

Pudsey the Dog: The Movie
Nelly the Horse
Voice

Thomas & Friends: Tale of the Brave
Marion
Voice; English dub

2015
The Lobster
Hotel Manager

Thomas & Friends: Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure
Marion
Voice; English dub